Those who left flatbed , why did you do it?

I broke into the industry pulling flatbed. I liked it alot. Lifting those Western Express tarps will make you a lot stronger. I liked the challenge of securing different loads. Coils were my favorite. When I was fired from a local job that I had, I ended up pulling dry van because I needed a job. I would have done anything at that point. I started pulling reefers a year and a half ago, with a little flatbed work sprinkled in there, but I love hauling reefers and I settled in my niche. I will agree with previous posters that there is a brotherhood among open deck flatbedders, especially since there are so many methods that people learn to secure loads, so there is always endless knowledge.

 

One word.... prime source.
That account was soft sided trailer flatbed, which is easier because of tarping, but the way they ran us made me completely hate it.
I would end up with 10- 14 stops on my trailer. We would get good mileage pay (.72) but it was zip code to zip code. Stop pay was $12. So it took 20-30 minutes to unload and re tarp. So if you delivering in the same city, you made about 12 an hour or so. Took 1 to 2 hours to get everything set up, and wasn't compensated a dime for it. That made me leave.